Fireplace Cooking

Hey, y'all. I have got the most exciting day planned for us

I want to tell you about a trip I took. I went to Colonial Williamsburg

Probably one of my favorite stops was the kitchen. They did all the authentic cooking just the way they did it hundreds of years ago

So today, my friend Jim Gay from Colonial Williamsburg, y'all, is teaching me to cook the old-fashioned way in my fireplace

First, we're making a scrumptious apple charlotte. It smells fabulous. Then, it's the best baked beans you'll ever eat

Look at those beans, y'all. Yum. And you can't have a feast without some hot buttery biscuits

y'all. Mmm. And finally, it's a colonial classic, steak and ale. Oh, I'm starving. Marvin

Jim has planned us a menu, y'all, that we're going to cook in the fireplace

Jim is a food historian, and he's going to share some of his favorite old-timey recipes with us

So let's get going. Well, first what we're going to do is we're going to bake up an apple charlotte

There's layers of apple, layers of sugar, layers of butter, layers of breadcrumbs, and layers of spice

Now, does it get any better? No. But what we'll start with is taking this pie plate right here and buttering it

And this is going to go in the fireplace? Yes. It's going to go in a Dutch oven right here

As a matter of fact, while you do that, can I get my Dutch oven going here? Yeah. Okay

And then you keep doing it. I'll just take the potty. Do whatever you need to do. Okay. And I'm just going to coat this pretty heavy with butter, Jim

Okay. Take some breadcrumbs and put a layer of breadcrumbs in there

Okay. How thick? Just a coating. Jim just used a loaf of stale French bread to make our crumbs

We have some lemon zest right here. You can go ahead and toss all of that lemon zest in there

Okay, every bit of it. All of it. You know, why not? We have the zest of about three lemons

I was going to say, this is a lot of zest. A lot of zest right here. Okie doke. Now, how many Granny Smith apples do you have here

Yeah, there's about five apples worth, enough to fill this up, and they're thinly sliced, as you can see

Yeah, he has paired and sliced them nice and thin, y'all. Paula, there's that one apple there

If you want to peel and core that, that would be great. Okie doke. What I'm doing is setting this oven up

and you see I have a bed of coals underneath. Uh-huh. And I'm going to take these coals and put it right on top

It's just like you're preheating the Dutch oven. Yeah. This is really going to function as an oven

What we're going to do is we're going to put that pie plate right in there

And this is how a Dutch oven was intended to be used. A lot of people using Dutch ovens today are actually using them as braising pots and stew pots and things like that

What we're doing, guys, you're cutting. What we'll also do is... I'm almost done

Okay, I'm going to come over here, and we're going to put some sugar in this bowl right here

and we'll combine it with nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon. Which of those do you like the best

I don't know. I love nutmeg, but nutmeg is very, very powerful

I'd have to say probably cinnamon. I think I do, too, and I think it's a natural marriage with apples

So you just added a cup of brown sugar and now about a tablespoon of cinnamon

Yeah. That looks good to me. And a little bit of mace

You know, mace and nutmeg are almost brothers. Are they? They grow on the same plant, yeah

And that's about an eighth of a teaspoon of mace. So am I going to toss the apples on the breadcrumb

Yeah, we'll put the apples. Okay. How's that? That's going to be our first layer. That'll be the first layer

Okay, good. Okay, because these are going to cook down. All right, how about some nutmeg? Yeah, okay

Go ahead and scrape them until you just feel like it. Usually when you can smell it, that's about enough

Mix that up. I think that's probably enough to think. Okay, I think so too. I'm going to jump in there and just dig in

Good. So now goes the sugar, and I'll put some butter on there for you

and then we'll work on another layer there. A few more apples

some more breadcrumbs okay yeah I think those crumbs are just going to be like fabulous

some more sugar alright do you want to put more butter on that

or just go on with the apples I've been talking to you and I haven't been putting the butter on

you know you can do it pretty much the way you want to

there's kind of no rules Y'all, this is my grandson Jack's set of cookware

And we've melted a stick of butter in here. Here you go, hon

We've saved a couple of cups of this bread. We'll mix it with butter and some more sugar, and then we'll dust that. Okay

And I love this because, you know, we're not making like a crust

No roll-out dough and all that. This is very hearty and almost foolproof for us

I think that I like a lot of crust You want to go more You can put some more butter on there too Look how much butter we haven put in the oven I know it Don you worry honey That butter will long be gone by the time this show over

Well, that was supposed to be just for this one recipe. Oh, it was? Well, we just got talking

Okay. Well, while you're doing that, whoops, get over here, you piece of butter

One of the things that you've got to do is look how big your oven is

and then figure out if you can put a pan into it. Right, right

All right, now this is, you have to be very careful. Ooh, hot pan, Jim

Yeah, now we're going to see. Look at. Yeah. Ooh, wow. You'll see that getting it in there won't be as hard as getting it out

It won't. Yeah, so we'll do it this way. Okay. At work, I'd be wearing rags, you know

You would? Yeah. Ooh. And then carefully put it back on. And we're going to let this cook over the hot cold for about 30 minutes

I tell you what, we'll take a quick break and we'll feed our fire

Okay. And when we come back, we'll take a look at this pie and see how it's doing

Coming up, the best baked beans you'll ever eat. Smell that. Let that run by your nose

That's right. And later, it's homemade biscuits. I like it. I like it

And finally, succulent steak and ale. I would wrestle a brown bear for all this food

I'm starving. Hey, y'all. Welcome back. I'm in here in the kitchen today doing fireplace cooking with food historian Jim Gay

Now, he has made us an apple charlotte, and it's time to take that out of our Dutch oven, isn't it

That's right. The ready light has lit. Oh, my goodness. That thing, y'all, is brown and beautiful and bubbling

I want to see you do this, baby. There we go. Look at this

It smells fabulous. All right, well, it's too hot for us to eat, Jim

Yeah. So why don't I go ahead and start on some other things. Now, I thought that I would make us some baked beans

Now, I'm going to start chopping some bacon. Okay. Now, I've got six slices of nice thick bacon

Okay. I'm just going to kind of rough dice this, Jim. Okay

And throw that in the pot. And we've got the pot hanging over our fire, heating up, y'all

I'm going to toss our bacon in there. All right. Now, you just got to make an assumption that everything that's metal over here is hot

Absolutely. I'm going to pull this out. I love this crane. Look-a-there

Look-a-there. We'll let that fat start to render out of that. All right

Now, we're not going to cover that bacon. We're going to let it sizzle so we can smell it and hear it

Now, while I'm putting together our beans, would you mind chopping our onion for us

The whole thing? Yeah, the whole dadgum thing. While Jim's dicing our onion, I'm going to get our beans ready

I'm using two cans of pinto beans that I've drained and rinsed

I'm going to add a fourth of a cup of brown sugar. Ooh, ours are getting good already

Yes, these are going to be delicious. Bacon and sugar. Bacon, fat, and onions, and beans

Works for me. And now I'm going to add two cans of diced tomatoes with green chili

You know, that sounds great. I'm a chili Pollock, so. Are you

Yeah, I really am, so. Oh, but gosh, smell that. Smell that. Let that run by your nose

That's working good. That's good. That's good. Smells good, doesn't it? Mm-hmm

Okay, great. Well, let's take these onions. And put them all? Well, we're going to take these and throw them in the pot. Okay

You want to stir up our bacon? I'd say let it render a couple of minutes

Okay, well, while that's rendering, why don't we go ahead and make some biscuits

Because we can't have a meal without biscuits. We can't. And this is my grandma's dough bowl

This is what she made her biscuits in. Wow. So I'm going to start with two cups of all-purpose flour

Okay. I'm just going to dump that. Yeah, tender that pot. Yeah

Don't let our bacon burn. I'm going to add a teaspoon of sugar

I don't like real sweet biscuits, so, you know, we want just a wee little bit

Yeah. And I'm going to add one tablespoon of baking powder, because we want to make nice, fat, fluffy biscuits

And I'm going to add about a teaspoon of salt. And I'm just going to mix that up together

You want to put these onions in? Yes, yes, yes. I scooped them up in the bowl for you. Okay

You think it's safe? I do Yes Those beans are going to be bad to the bone honey Put a little salt and let add a little pepper to it You want to

Yeah, sure. That'd be good. All right. So I've got eight tablespoons of butter

Cold butter. The butter queen. You know, I think that's what they call me

Is it? The butter queen. Well. Or the butter lady. Hey. So I'm going to just cut this using a pastry blender until it kind of looks like cornmeal, y'all

Can you measure up about three-fourths of a cup of milk? Now, I'm just going to use sweet milk

You can use buttermilk or sweet milk, either one. Ooh. So this flour is looking good

It is. All right. Now, I'm going to do just like my little grandma did

I'm going to kind of make a well. And then I'm going to pour in just a little bit of milk at the time and work my dough up with my fingers

Okay. Just like this. So while I'm kneading this dough, Jim, how about you putting in the beans in the pot

And I'll add about a cup of water to keep our beans from drying out

and we're going to put that back over the fire for about 20 to 30 minutes

All right, so I got our biscuit dough out. I'm just going to knead this a little bit, and then I'm going to pat it out

And when we come back, we'll finish up our biscuits and get them in the fire

Coming up, Jim's making a delicious steak and ale. Oh, I'm starving

Hey, y'all, welcome back. While y'all were gone, I've gotten our biscuits rolled out or padded out

and I'm just going to cut out my biscuits and get those ready to go in our pan

And Jim's making us two or three elements, just like you would on top of your stove

to fix our next few dishes. How's our fire looking, Jim? We'd probably grade it as C, okay, but it's working

Grade it as C? Yeah, we'll give it a C. Well, for the first time in my fireplace, I will so take a C

Listen, if I was in high school, I'd be flaunting that sea everywhere

I'd be so proud. I'm just going to butter the bottom of my skillet

Okay. And then I've got these ready to go in, Jim. Okay, good

And then you can go ahead and get this on the fire. I'm going to put them right there like that

Those biscuits look pretty good, don't they? They sure do. Ooh, and you got those coals hot

I'm just going to do a modified Dutch oven here with this fry pan

Okay. And I'm just going to take the coals, and we're just going to put them right over that and let them bake

What amazes me, y'all, about this whole deal is our fire is very, very small

But he is able to take this wood after it's turned to like a charcoal state

And gosh, we're fixing to have three pots going. Oh, yeah, good pot

And look here at this piece, y'all. This is a gridiron. Right

This is what you grilled your meats on in the fireplace. So that's what we're going to do next

Steak and ale. Okay, now what I'm going to do is take this other pan and move it on to the center here

And this is where we're going to cook our onions and mushrooms. This is getting hot

All right, so what can I help you do, Jim, over here to move you along with your steak

You want me to dice your onions? Onions and some mushrooms. Okay. We've got one onion and about a four-ounce container of button mushrooms

And here's a steak. This is a stir-oin. I'm going to season it on both sides

You can use any kind of cut of meat. You can. Actually, the recipe calls for rump

Rump. Rump would be kind of tough. From the butt. That's right

Yeah, from the butt. I've got your onions done. And I'm going to take some butter and slather it all over this meat right here

You like it? This is your recipe here. I like it. I like it

I love the way this man thinks, y'all. Did y'all see all that butter he rubbed on that meat

This is when you're going to invite your neighbors, okay? Look at that butter on that meat, y'all

I'm going to take this right here, and we're going to brown that. and then we're going to take this pan, which I've already got some heat on

You heated it? Right. We'll take some butter. Put it in there

Great time of day. How much? About, yeah, there you go. That much? Yep

Put in the onions and the mushrooms. Okay. Look how hot that pan is, y'all

That fire is as hot as can be. Okay. Just step up to it. Yeah

Let's put some salt in there, too. And we'll put the lid back on

Let those sweat for just a few Okay Okay Well I tell you what Jim I would wrestle a brown bear for all

this food. I'm starving. Well, let's look in at our beans. I'm kind of

worried about those. Okay. Let's see. Yeah, let's check them out. Yeah, I'm thinking about them. Oh, yeah

Oh, those look great, Jim. Now, I was a little concerned that

they were drying out, but no, Oh, they're doing nicely. Okay. Just put them back in there and just let them stew

Oh, yeah. And our steak looks like it's getting ready to flip. Oh, my goodness

Yeah. Oh, I'm starving. You need a bigger gridiron. I do, don't I

So now when do we put the beer in? Oh, well, since you've got a hand, go ahead and put the beer in

Now, how much beer are you going to have? About half of that. Okay

This is actually an English ale. Okay, that's good. That's good. Listen, he's planning on drinking the other half

He's afraid I'm going to use too much. I've got my hands full. Can you take that steak and put that in there for me

Oh, yeah. Yeah. There you go. Just put it in there whole

Just put it in there whole like that. What do you think? Oh, I think I want some

Okay, so I'm going to put the lid back on here now. We're done with this

We're done. Yeah. And we're waiting for your biscuits. Your beans are done

And then we're going to make the thickener for your steak, dear

We'll see y'all back here in just a second. Coming up, we're getting ready to chow down on this colonial feast

Step back, Jack, because Mama's coming in. Hey, y'all

We have just about got our meal pulled together. And I tell you what, Jim, I would say to you

don't get your arm in my way because I may eat it. I am so hungry

All right. And everything looks so fabulous. Look at those beans, y'all

We still got to thicken that steak, don't we? That's right. Well, why don't you be doing that? Okay

And I'm going to come over here and show everybody my biscuits

Now, if they taste half as good as they look, Jim, and this is hot as can be

All right, now tell us what you're doing. What I'm doing is I'm basically making a lump of butter with flour

And you're using about half a stick of butter and two tablespoons of all-purpose flour

Yeah. Okay. And we've got nutmeg here. We'll just kind of give this a couple of scrapes

Not a lot. And what we have here is thyme and parsley. That thyme's going to be wonderful with those mushrooms and onions

Mm-hmm. Get in there and you want to smoosh that up with your fingers? I sure do, honey

So then what we'll do is we'll use that to thicken our steaks right now

You know, I've never thickened a dish by using flour and butter

mixed like this. No. We need a whisk just to get the lumps out here

I'm going to lift that up. Look in here, y'all. Look at that

That's kind of cooked down. Is that enough? Well, it depends on how thick you want it

That looks wonderful. Well, why don't we move that on up here on this trivet

It's time to eat. Look at those mushrooms, y'all. And I just happen to have some leftover

blackberry butter in my fridge. Fried biscuits. And some beans. Some beans, right

All right. Now you just step back, Jack, because Mama's coming in. Mm-hmm

This is the best part of the show. Are you going to dance more and more

The steak and ale is out of this world. Mmm. I think

Just in case I can't reach it, you want to help me? Let's taste our apple Charlotte

Look at this. And y'all, it's got a real crunchy top on it

Hold that right there, Jim. I'm going to just reach over here and dip us a little ice cream

Okay. And why don't we share it? All right. Which part is mine

That part. Whoa, that's enough. Okay. So much for sharing. Works for me

It's out of this world. I love the crispy, buttery breadcrumbs. What are you pulling out of your pocket

Well, when you visit a woman, a southern woman, you leave the spoon at the end

So this is a little bit different. This is called a noggin. He knows just what size spoon

Jim, thank you so much. And you just put it around your neck, and while you're cooking things, you taste them

Exactly. I love this. Well, thank you. And you know that Jim and I both always send you best dishes in love from our kitchen to yours

Thank you, Tim. Thank you